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    Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
    Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
    Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
    Audiobook47 minutes

    Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

    Written by William Shakespeare and Charles Lamb

    Narrated by Bart Wolffe

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Taken from Charles Lamb's Tales From Shakespeare, this adaptation tells the vengeful story of Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSaland Publishing
    Release dateDec 1, 2012
    ISBN9781908650436
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest playwright the world has seen. He produced an astonishing amount of work; 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 5 poems. He died on 23rd April 1616, aged 52, and was buried in the Holy Trinity Church, Stratford.

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    Reviews for Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

    4.5/5

    50 ratings48 reviews

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    • 5/5
      It's said that someone once read this, and said, "I don't see what the fuss is about, it's just a bunch of quotes strung together." That has advantages and disadvantages in reading. The more you're familiar with Elizabethan language, the better you can comprehend and appreciate the plays. But sometimes reading something such as "To Be or Not to Be" I'm reminded of a friend's reaction to the presence of Ted Danson in Private Ryan. He said all he could see was Sam of Cheers. It can be disconcerting to hear or read something that familiar. And I recommend doing both--hearing and reading if you want to get the most out of Hamlet. Precisely because the language and some of the literary and historical allusions are unfamiliar, reading an annotated copy of the play is a must--all the more because this is Shakespeare's longest play. But the text of a play is after all just a scaffolding--it's really not meant to be read, but seen. The title role is the quintessential test of an actor; Hamlet appears in a larger proportion of the play than in any other Shakespeare role--two thirds--and some fine Hamlets have appeared on film. There's the classic 1948 film directed by and starring Laurence Olivier, there's the 1990 Zeffirelli version starring Mel Gibson with Glenn Close as Gertrude and there's the 1996 film directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh. Branagh's film is visually stunning, has incredible depth of casting with celebrated actors taking even the minor roles, and it's the longest using the full "eternity text;" it's a little over four hours. Those with less stamina might prefer Zeffirelli's version, at close to half the length. One thing about performances you're likely to see. Especially because the title role is so demanding, you usually see mature, veteran actors as Hamlet. Olivier was in his forties when he played the role, Gibson and Branagh in their thirties. I think this throws off the character. Hamlet is young--still a student and often referred to as "young." And age matters. One thing I loved about Zefirelli's Romeo and Juliet was how he cast actors that actually were the right ages--it made so much more sense of their actions, and I think that's true of Hamlet too. It makes more sense of his famous hesitations, his emo soliloquies, his grief over his father, his near suicidal musings and manic turns and why he feels so betrayed by his mother. If she married young and he is still young, she could possibly still produce a child that could displace him as heir. But all that is lost with a Hamlet pushing 40 and a post-menopausal Gertrude. One of those books/plays you have to read or you're an ignoramus, but one that pays to know, and is even enjoyable if you have one whit of poetry in your soul. It's not my favorite Shakespeare play, but if by some miracle you got through high school and college without being exposed to Shakespeare, this is probably the one you really should know over all the others.
    • 3/5
      By far the best Shakespeare play ever, and that's saying a lot. It's just so incredibly complex. Hamlet's soliloquies give insight into the human psyche that even most novels, let alone dramas, can't match. And Horatio just might be my favorite Shakespeare character of all time,
    • 4/5
      the dark prince of Denmark. so emotional. an absolute classic as important as Oedipus Rex.
    • 5/5
      Shakespeare is not easy to understand. This version tries to make it easier for you by defining many archaic terms and spacing out the lines so that it doesn't look like a dense book, and so that you can add your own annotations. I read this in my high school senior English class (albeit with the CliffNotes edition, which has handy explanatory summaries but fewer definitions), and I have to say that the play is easier to appreciate with a teacher pointing out Shakespeare's literary techniques and explaining the situations.
    • 4/5
      Shakespeare is an adept poet and master of the language. He layers on jokes, puns, and references everywhere. He has a massive output of work, and a number of different plots. When we compare him to other authors, it is difficult to find anyone who stacks up. This is usually because we compare him to the wrong people.Shakespeare didn't write books or pamphlets or epics, he wrote plays. Short pieces of drama that were meant to be fast-paced and exciting. That they are mainly experienced today as bound books and not theatrical productions does not change their origins. If one wants to look at the achievements of Shakespeare, he should be compared to someone of a similar bent.He should be compared with prolific writers known for catchy jokes and phrases. Writers who reuse old plots, making fun of their traditions. Writers of work meant to be performed. Writers who aim for the lowest common denominator, while still including the occasional political commentary. He should be compared to the writers of South Park; or Family Guy; or the Simpsons.Shakespeare was meant to be lowbrow and political, but now it only reads that way to those who are well-educated enough to understand his language, reference, and the political scene of the time. He referenced mythology because that was the popular thing to do. Family Guy references 1980's pop culture. Is that any less esoteric? How esoteric would it be after 400 years?Additionally, all of Shakespeare's magnificent plots were lifted, sometimes whole cloth, from other books and histories, just like how sit coms have 'episode types' or how the Simpsons steals the plots of popular movies.Shakespeare was not as visionary or deep as he is often given credit for. Rather, he was always so vague with the motives and thoughts of his characters that two critics could give his characters two different and conflicting motives, but find both equally well-supported.Is Shylock evil because he's a Jew, evil despite the fact, or evil because of the effects of racism on him? You can make a case for all three, while Marlowe (the more practised writer) never left it to chance, and where has it gotten him?Shakespeare was an inspired and prolific author, and his effect on writing and talent for aphorism cannot be overstated. I think he probably wrote the King James version because it is so pretty. However, he is not the be-all and end-all of writing.His popularity and central position in the canon comes mainly from the fact that you can write anything you like about his plays. Critics and professors don't have to scramble, or even leave their comfort zone. Shakespeare's work is vague enough that it rejects no interpretations. No matter your opinions, you can find them reflected in Shakespeare, or at least, not outright refuted.His is a grey world, and his lack of agenda leaves us pondering what he could possibly have been like. His vague and endless interpretation makes his writing the perfect representation of an unsure, unjust world. No one is really right or wrong, and if they were, there would be no way to know it.I don't know whether this makes him the most or least poignant of writers. Is the author's absence from the stories the most rarefied example of the craft, or is it just lighthearted pandering? I'm still not sure.
    • 5/5
      While this book is incredibly depressing, the story is one that holds your attention the entire time. Shakespeare seems to be good at doing that...
    • 5/5
      Shakespeare is good to teach in any classroom, because it is so timeless. The struggles Hamlet faces throughout this play, wondering who he is and what he should do, are things that everyone goes through at some point in their life. Students could really see character development and inner struggles within a character while reading Hamlet. It could also be a good way to get students to interact with a text, because it is a play and they could act it out.
    • 5/5
      Who wants to read Hamlet? Ew. Ew Hamlet.But I enjoyed it. Despite being long long long and so thick, the pase was acutally quite brisk, and the language gorgeous, and I have fond memories of Hamlet. Compare Hamlet to Phaedra - Phaedra is a much shorter play, but the titular heroine spends the entirety of the play basically in the throes of the same emotion. Hamlet's issues, although they drag out through the whole play, keep changing and morphing, and corresponding to the action in the play.All in all, I am happy I read it.
    • 4/5
      Hamlet is my favorite and most quotable of all Shakespeare's plays. It is much more than a straightforward tale of revenge and focuses a great deal on the philosophical, moral and psychological, and even the reader/audience is left with many unanswered questions at the play's end. However, I prefer to be immersed in a play, listening to the beautiful language, rather than reading the text, so it's difficult for me to rate as simply a book.
    • 5/5
      This was the first work by Shakespeare that I had every read, and it was definitely not the last. Hamlet was so captivating and thought provoking that I had to read more of Shakespeare. This was an author that I had not been looking forward to reading, but after reading this I was hooked. I highly recommend it to everyone out there.
    • 3/5
      Classic. I did enjoy reading this and I still have all my original underlines and footnotes on the page. The perfect definition of tragedy!
    • 5/5
      Classic work, full of relevant themes. Hamlet's father dies and his uncle usurps the throne. Hamlet sees his father's ghost and believes that he was told to kill his uncle.
    • 5/5
      One of my favorites. Best film adaptation: surprisingly, Mel Gibson's. Branagh's was way too long (yeah, I know, but still) and had Robin Williams in it; we won't talk about Ethan Hawke's.
    • 5/5
      The Tormented Boy who spawned an entire genus of Tormented Boys. My Ur-story.
    • 4/5
      Hey its Hamlet. What else can I say. You either love it or hate it.
    • 5/5
      The crazy, classic story about the prince of Denmark, in which everyone dies but Horatio... really delves into the idea of death, insanity, and the line between fantasy and reality. A must read (or see!).
    • 4/5
      I refuse to offer up a literary review on Shakespeare. I wouldn't presume. However, I will say that I enjoyed this dark story. Watching a man descend into madness, yet still retain enough sanity to accomplish his purpose is drama at its best. Half the fun for me is finding out where all the quotes one hears all the time come from.
    • 5/5
      This is the tragedy of Shakespeare.But this story don't contain love.This story is a man whose father was killed.So he tried to revenge.Can he accomplish it?
    • 5/5
      I think I finally understand the fuss about Shakespeare. I've read and enjoyed his sonnets. I'm familiar with the basic storyline of most of his plays. But I've never found the plays themselves very accessible or coherent. There were some passing Shakespeare interludes in college, but they were surface at best. I tried a personal Shakespeare regime once, reading through my Complete Shakespeare on a somewhat-regular basis. The project fizzled; I just couldn't keep my head in it. But finally, audiobooks came to the rescue. Hearing the play, with all the characters voiced by different actors, is almost as good as seeing it. I think I've found my Shakespeare remedy. This audiobook is a BBC dramatization and features an all-star cast with Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet. I really enjoyed everyone's performances. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is probably Shakespeare's most famous work, a tragedy that explores madness, revenge, alienation, incest, and passion. It's an archetypal story that has been told and retold many times since (and before) Shakespeare's play, and will probably continue to be staged endlessly in various media. Disney's animated film The Lion King is a perfect example of how this story can be adapted to almost any medium and setting. One of the main objections many modern readers have to Shakespeare is the language. It can be tough, especially if you're slogging through it on your own, weighted down with the helpful but heavy annotations and footnotes of most print versions. So I was delighted when the language not only made sense to me, but astounded me with its beauty and strength. Though I struggled somewhat at times to understand, for the most part I was able to follow what was going on and appreciate the way it was written. This is probably funny, but my first thought on hearing the language of the play was that it sounded like C. S. Lewis's Narnian nobility, especially Prince Rilian in The Silver Chair. I never really made the connection, but this was entirely deliberate on Lewis's part. He describes Rilian: "He was dressed in black, and altogether looked a little bit like Hamlet." (Rilian is, of course, rather mad as well.) I have always loved the archaic dignity and grace of their speech—and it always seemed to me that there wasn't nearly enough of it in the Chronicles. Well, I've found the fountainhead now and I'm drinking eagerly. All unwitting, I was prepared for the language of Shakespeare by Lewis. Just one more reason to love Narnia and read it to my children!It's astonishing how many familiar quotes come from this play. The list seems endless: every dog has his day, to be or not to be, frailty, thy name is Woman, murder most foul, and many, many more. Half the fun of listening was to hear things I already knew, fresh where they began. Wikipedia attempts to sketch a broad outline of the authors and thinkers inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet; I don't think its influence can be measured. It's had an incredible impact on the imaginations of countless writers, and though I knew this theoretically going in, it's quite another thing to experience it for myself and hear all these everyday phrases in their original context. The theology is alternately wonderful and dreadful (with the wonderful parts being, I think, unintentional). The worst part is when Hamlet refrains from killing his uncle because he finds him at his prayers with his soul supposedly cleansed and ready for heaven—while Hamlet's father was murdered suddenly, without the chance of shriving his soul, and is therefore most likely in Hell. This is a very Roman Catholic, works-based view of salvation, and I think its innate illogic is obvious. But there are other parts that hit me hard with their spiritual resonance, like this passage:Use every man after his desert,and who should 'scape whipping?Use them after your own honor and dignity:the less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty.It isn't in a religious context at all, but the spiritual import of this thought is so profound. The more I think about it, the more profound it becomes. In short: Hamlet is brilliant. I know some of it went over my head, but the pieces I grasped are sharply intelligent and pithy. And the best part of this entire experience? It leaves me hungry for more Shakespeare.
    • 2/5
      This was a reasonably enjoyable Shakespearean play. It's kind of wild. It's not long, but not the shortest of his plays, either.
    • 5/5
      I have loved this play since I first read it in high school. I find it both very tragic (but in a heroic kind of way) and very funny. I remember laughing at the fishwife dialogue in the library and my class mate thinking I was terribly odd. It doesn't matter, I still think this book is beautiful to read and very funny.
    • 5/5
      Life changing. Truly a must read for anyone and everyone. While I know plays are meant to be seen, I honestly think you must create your own interpretation.
    • 3/5
      I read this play once during my senior year of high school, and have yet to read it since, but something about it makes me like it. Scandal amongst royal families will ALWAYS be interesting, I suppose.
    • 5/5
      This is it. The big kahuna. The Shakespeare play to end all Shakespeare plays. And I confess, I have fallen in love with it completely.When I was a child reading about Shakespeare plays in my Tales from Shakespeare (and seeing occasional live performances of the comedies), and later when I was a teenager watching them on videotape, I couldn’t quite see what the big deal was with Hamlet. It sounded to me like it lacked the romance of Romeo and Juliet, the fun of the comedies, the magic of the romances, and the bloodiness of some of the other tragedies like Macbeth.How wrong I was.While I wouldn’t necessarily advocate using a complete performance text—that would make for a long evening—and there are actually a large number of contradictions in the play as it has come down to us, what a joy it is to read all of Shakespeare’s words! Hamlet is a long play, but in general it flows beautifully, with long, elaborate scenes that fold into each other. I haven’t made a count, but I’d wager that in addition to being Shakespeare’s lengthiest play, Hamlet has, on average, the longest scenes. To me, this makes it read easier, but I might be in the minority in that respect.Hamlet as a character is a vehicle for some of Shakespeare’s most beautiful poetry and most searching philosophy. The play has gained its worldwide renown almost solely because of his soliloquies, which are many and lengthy. With all due respect to the famous “To be or not to be,” my favorite of the lot is “O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!” I’m not an actor by profession, and haven’t been on the stage since junior high, but this speech stirred the actor in me. It’s a virtuosic piece, which opens with Hamlet’s typical melancholy and self-deprecation and ends with a moment of true resolve and excitement. Of course, the next time we see him, he’s depressed again and contemplating suicide.Going in, of course, I already knew about the wonderful poetry and philosophy in Hamlet. What I didn’t expect was how powerfully I would relate to the main character. Perhaps this is because I was approaching the play for the first time with the understanding that Hamlet is a very young man. He has traditionally been thought to be about 30 due to a remark of the gravedigger’s, but all other internal evidence points to him being in his late teens or so, and it’s very much possible that the gravedigger’s remark was a later addition to accommodate an older actor. When I instead read him as a teenager or young adult, all the pieces came together and the play made sense to me for the first time.Not that one has to be young in order to relate to Hamlet—he is a universal character, and it’s really remarkable how many different ways he can be interpreted. A friend and I were discussing how we might each play the role were we ever given the chance: he would probably emphasize his intellectualism, his shrewdness, his struggle with madness, and his quest for revenge, whereas I would stress his youth, depression, and emotional variance.There’s so much in this play that it is utterly impossible to touch on everything in a single review, so I suppose I’ll stop while I’m ahead. I’m sure that when I reread, I will notice new things that I never saw before. And I do plan on rereading Hamlet. Like all truly great works of literature, it’s an inexhaustible gold mine, a fountain of insight one can’t help returning to.
    • 5/5
      Imagine my surprise when browsing through Kernaghan Books in the Wayfarers Shopping Arcade in Southport for these editions when I stumbled across Hamlet somewhat working against the purpose of me utilising these Oxfords to discover literature. Edition editor G.R. Hibbard chooses the First Folio as the basis for his text on the assumption that it was produced from a clean, revised manuscript of the play by Shakespeare himself, a final revision of the material that increases the pace but also clarifies the story in other places. His argument is sound, but I do much prefer the much later Arden 3’s approach of suggesting that all the close textual analysis in the world won’t definitively confirm which of the versions is definitive, so it’s best just to present all three (unless like the RSC edition, the mission is to reproduce an edition of the folio in particular). More inevitably posted here.
    • 3/5
      I'm not a big Shakespeare fan, so I won't rate any of his works very high
    • 5/5
      I do not have a degree in literature, so maybe I am unqualified to remark on this classic work. However, one of the hallmarks of a classic is that many people enjoy it and read it. So, I'm going to go ahead and forge on with this review anyway.I teach high school literature to a group of students weekly. We read Hamlet after finishing Richard III. The students were much more passionate about Hamlet. And when I use the term passion, I mean that in both a positive and negative sense. Some of the students felt Hamlet was a whiny, pathetic nincompoop. Other students were impressed with Hamlet's deceptive insanity and classified him as a hero, although of a more darker variety of heroes.Some of the more interesting discussion topics included the following:1. Does Hamlet rule events or do events rule Hamlet?2. What is the definition of a hero? Does Hamlet fit that definition?3. Is Hamlet truly insane? What is the definition of insanity? 4. Is inaction actually action?Even when the students disliked Hamlet, they still seemed to feel that his character had a depth of authenticity. Because of Hamlet's "realness," they were able to feel the play and feel Hamlet more than some of the other characters they have read about this year, like Aeneas, Antigone and Richard III. It felt like a clinical, dispassionate discussion with the other works of literature. But, the Hamlet discussion was real.During our classroom discussions we remarked on the fact that the play seemed full ambiguity. Could we trust ourselves to make any determinations. One student humorously remarked that maybe Shakespeare did this purposefully, laughing at all of the confusion and argument that this would create in future generations.And while Hamlet is not my favorite work of Shakespeare, I do think it has a timeless value. Everyone should read or see it!
    • 5/5
      Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth are my favorite Shakespeare plays. I remember being bored to tears reading it in school and then being overwhelmed by the power of Hamlet seeing it performed shortly thereafter. How can you have kids read a play (alone and not aloud)?
    • 5/5
      This is probably the most famous play in the world. It is so well-known that I don't think I need to outline the plot.I can see why this play, and Shakespeare, have wowed audiences and readers through the ages.I find my reactions to the bard's work quite interesting. I don't know if I've gained in literary maturity, or if his writing is so uneven. In either case, while I've certainly enjoyed his works in the past, it isn't until I read Richard III recently that I understood why Shakespeare has been considered so great, so far above any other playwright since his time. I've certianly enjoyed his work, previously, but I had thought him slightly over-rated. Now I know that I was so wrong!In any case, I'm now a confirmed fan of The Bard, and look forward to reading more of his work!
    • 4/5
      One of the bard's all time classics, so frequently performed that it occasionally needs to be re-read to experience it the way he wrote it, without all the directorial impulses to pretty it up or modernize it. It had been a long time since my last read, and I was somewhat surprised to realize that this play comes with very few stage directions outside of entrances and exits; there are so many things that directors do exactly the same, you forget they weren't mentioned in the stage directions, and have simply become habit. Anyway, this play, about ambition and revenge, still holds up well through the centuries, though many of the actions seem outdated to us now. The poetry of the language and the rich texturing of the characters, even the most minor of characters, creates a complex story that successfully holds many balls in the air at once. Shakespeare's frequent use of ghosts is noteworthy, since that is something that modern day playwrights are told to be very careful about, and avoid if at all possible. A satisfying story, and a satisfying re-read.